Evolve

# Evolve with Intel Core Ultra X9 388H + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile

The combination of Intel's Core Ultra X9 388H and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile delivers a compelling 1080p and 1440p experience in Evolve, with the data showing a clear performance ceiling at 4K Ultra. This mobile pairing lands at rank 1001 out of 3700 tested combos, placing it in the top 27% of all system configurations for this game. The measured frame rates reveal a system that handles the game's demands with considerable headroom at lower resolutions, while the 4K Ultra preset pushes the GPU to its limits.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with Medium settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with Medium settings is 200, with a minimum of 170 and a maximum of 230 frames per second.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in overall benchmark scores?

A: The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H has an average benchmark score of 44466, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D (44573) and 0.3% higher than the Intel Core i9-13950HX (44342).

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile features 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 896.0 GB/s.

Q: Which resolution shows the largest FPS drop from 1080p to 4K?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 157 at 1080p to 60 at 4K, a reduction of 97 frames per second, which represents the steepest absolute decline across all presets.

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile compared to all GPUs?

A: The RTX 5080 Mobile sits at the 81st percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 38349.

Q: How many cores and threads does the CPU have?

A: The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H has 16 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile is the primary driver of Evolve's frame rates, and the data reflects a GPU that scales predictably with resolution and settings. The GPU's 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 896.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which appears sufficient for this 2015 title even at 4K, where the Low preset still manages 98 FPS. The Blackwell 2.0 architecture, built on a 5 nm process at TSMC, contains 45,600 million transistors on a 378 mm² die, and its 7680 shading units deliver 23.04 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The base clock of 975 MHz and boost clock of 1500 MHz are modest by desktop standards, yet the measured results show this mobile part is not the limiting factor until the most demanding settings are applied.

At 4K Ultra, the GPU clearly becomes the bottleneck, with the average FPS collapsing to 41. This represents a 32% drop from the 4K High result of 60 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects and geometry stress the GPU's 96 ROPs and 240 TMUs significantly. The texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 144.0 GPixel/s are respectable for a mobile part, but Evolve's Ultra settings appear to demand more than the 80 W TDP can sustainably deliver. In contrast, the 1080p Low result of 258 FPS shows the GPU has substantial headroom when the load is light, indicating that the RTX 5080 Mobile is a high-end part that only struggles when pushed to its absolute limits.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its position: a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4952 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 169754 place it at the 81st percentile overall. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce MX570, has a nearly identical average score (38299 vs 38349, a 0.1% difference), which is surprising given the RTX 5080 Mobile's much larger memory pool and newer architecture. This suggests that in synthetic benchmarks, the two GPUs are closer than the 16 GB GDDR7 memory would imply, but the measured FPS in Evolve tells a different story — the RTX 5080 Mobile's real-world performance in this game is what matters for this analysis.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 200 FPS average with a minimum of 170, which provides smooth gameplay with room to spare for demanding scenes. At 1440p, Medium drops to 134 FPS average (minimum 114, maximum 154), still well above the 60 FPS threshold for comfortable play. Even at 4K, Medium maintains 76 FPS average with a minimum of 65 frames, making it the only preset besides Low that stays above 60 FPS at this resolution.

The High preset is a viable alternative for users prioritizing visuals over raw frame rates. At 1080p, High achieves 157 FPS, at 1440p it reaches 105 FPS, and at 4K it just hits 60 FPS exactly. This makes High the recommended choice for 4K gaming, as it provides a playable experience while looking noticeably better than Medium. However, the Ultra preset is not recommended for any resolution — at 1080p it drops to 109 FPS, at 1440p to 73 FPS, and at 4K to a marginal 41 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra costs roughly 30-32% of performance at each resolution, which is a steep price for the additional visual fidelity that Evolve's Ultra settings provide.

For competitive play, the Low preset offers the highest frame rates: 258 FPS at 1080p, 173 FPS at 1440p, and 98 FPS at 4K. The data indicates that Low is the only preset that maintains triple-digit FPS at 4K, making it the choice for players who prioritize responsiveness over graphics. The Medium preset at 4K (76 FPS) is the best compromise for those who want both visual quality and playability, while the 1440p Medium result (134 FPS) appears to be the sweet spot for most users, offering high frame rates and good image quality without the performance penalties of 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile ranks 1001 out of 3700 tested combinations for Evolve, placing it in the 73rd percentile — meaning it outperforms roughly 73% of all tested systems. This is a strong showing for a mobile platform, though the ranking suggests that many desktop configurations with higher-end GPUs or CPUs achieve better results in this game. The CPU's overall percentile of 88 among all processors indicates that the 388H is a high-performing mobile chip, but the combo rank shows that Evolve's performance is more heavily influenced by the GPU.

The GPU's nearest rivals provide context for this ranking. The RTX 5080 Mobile's average benchmark score of 38349 is within 1% of the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 (38299, 0.1% higher), the RTX 4080 Mobile (38135, 0.6% higher), and the MX570 A (38691, 0.9% lower). This clustering suggests that in synthetic tests, these GPUs are nearly interchangeable, yet the RTX 5080 Mobile's 16 GB of GDDR7 memory gives it an advantage in VRAM-heavy scenarios that Evolve's higher settings might exploit. The CPU's nearest rivals — the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D (44573, 0.2% higher), Intel Core i9-13950HX (44342, 0.3% lower), AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 (44309, 0.4% lower), and Intel Core i5-13600 (44240, 0.5% lower) — all sit within a tight band, indicating that the 388H's processing power is competitive with mid-range desktop parts.

The rank of 1001 out of 3700 is notable because it places this combo in the upper quartile of all tested systems, but not in the elite tier. This suggests that while the RTX 5080 Mobile is a capable GPU, it is not the absolute fastest mobile part available, and Evolve's optimization favors systems with higher-bandwidth memory or more ROPs. The data implies that players seeking maximum performance in Evolve would need a desktop GPU with higher pixel throughput, as the 144.0 GPixel/s rate of this mobile part appears to be the limiting factor at high settings and resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, with the severity of the drop varying by settings preset. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 258 at 1080p to 173 at 1440p (a 33% reduction) and then to 98 at 4K (a 43% reduction from 1440p). This progressive decline indicates that even at low graphical loads, the GPU's rendering pipeline is increasingly stressed by the pixel count, with the 4K resolution requiring 4 times the pixels of 1080p.

At Medium settings, the scaling is similar: 200 FPS at 1080p drops to 134 FPS at 1440p (33% reduction) and then to 76 FPS at 4K (43% reduction). The consistency of these percentage drops across Low and Medium suggests that the GPU's fill rate is the primary constraint, rather than shader or texture complexity. However, at High settings, the drop from 1080p (157 FPS) to 1440p (105 FPS) is 33%, but the drop to 4K (60 FPS) is 43% — a slightly steeper decline that hints at memory bandwidth becoming more critical.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 109 FPS at 1080p drops to 73 FPS at 1440p (33% reduction) and then to 41 FPS at 4K (44% reduction from 1440p). The fact that the percentage drops are so consistent across all presets — roughly one-third from 1080p to 1440p and another 43-44% from 1440p to 4K — strongly indicates that the RTX 5080 Mobile's 896.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is the limiting factor. Doubling the pixel count from 1080p to 1440p requires proportionally more memory bandwidth, and the GPU's 256-bit bus, while wide for a mobile part, cannot sustain the throughput needed for 4K at high settings. The 60 FPS result at 4K High is exactly at the edge of playability, suggesting that this GPU is right at the boundary of its capabilities for this game at this resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured FPS values for this combo is as follows:

At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 258 FPS, while Medium delivers 200 FPS with a minimum of 170 and maximum of 230. High settings produce 157 FPS average, and Ultra drops to 109 FPS. These numbers show a clear hierarchy: each step up in settings costs roughly 20-30% of the previous preset's performance, with the gap between Medium and High (43 FPS) being the largest single step.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 173 FPS, Medium averages 134 FPS (minimum 114, maximum 154), High averages 105 FPS, and Ultra averages 73 FPS. The 1440p results are approximately 67% of the corresponding 1080p numbers, which aligns with the pixel count ratio of 2.25 times (2560x1440 = 3,686,400 pixels vs 1920x1080 = 2,073,600 pixels). This near-linear scaling indicates that the GPU is not hitting any architectural bottleneck at 1440p.

At 3840x2160, the data shows: Low averages 98 FPS, Medium averages 76 FPS (minimum 65, maximum 88), High averages 60 FPS, and Ultra averages 41 FPS. The 4K results are roughly 38-40% of the 1080p results, which is slightly better than the theoretical 25% (since 4K has 4 times the pixels), indicating that the GPU benefits from some efficiency gains at higher resolutions, likely due to reduced CPU overhead. The minimum FPS values at Medium settings — 170 at 1080p, 114 at 1440p, and 65 at 4K — show that even in demanding scenes, this combo maintains playable frame rates, with the 4K Medium minimum of 65 FPS confirming that this preset is the highest playable option at that resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H's role in Evolve's performance is best understood through its multi-core and single-core capabilities. With 16 cores and 16 threads, this Panther Lake-based processor delivers strong multi-threaded performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 18911 and Passmark multithread score of 36811. However, Evolve is a game that primarily relies on single-thread performance for its game logic and physics, and the CPU's Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2200.5, along with a Passmark single-thread score of 4280, indicates that it handles these tasks efficiently.

The CPU's 2.10 GHz base clock and 5.10 GHz boost clock provide a wide dynamic range, allowing it to ramp up to high frequencies when needed for gaming workloads. The 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache help reduce memory latency, which is crucial for maintaining consistent frame times in a fast-paced FPS like Evolve. The dual-channel LPDDR5X memory support with 153.6 GB/s bandwidth is relatively modest compared to the GPU's 896.0 GB/s, but since the CPU does not directly feed the GPU in this architecture, this is not a bottleneck in the measured results.

The CPU's benchmark scores place it at the 88th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 44466. Its nearest rivals — the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D (44573, 0.2% higher), Intel Core i9-13950HX (44342, 0.3% lower), AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 (44309, 0.4% lower), and Intel Core i5-13600 (44240, 0.5% lower) — are all desktop or high-end mobile parts, and the 388H's scores are competitive with them. In Evolve specifically, the CPU's performance is unlikely to be the limiting factor at any resolution, as the measured FPS scaling follows GPU-bound patterns. The 258 FPS result at 1080p Low suggests the CPU can handle high frame rates without becoming a bottleneck, and the consistent 33% FPS drops between resolutions confirm that the GPU is the primary constraint in this system.